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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5908629" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 277: November 2000 part 4/7Fiction: Another name for dawn by Paul Kemp: Time for another prequel to their novels to appear in the magazine. How did Erevis Cale get his name? He made it up as a portmanteau of someone who's life he spared, and his new status after being exiled, translated into an obscure language. Makes sense to me. As this is both self-contained and full of interesting and subtle little details, it's one of the more pleasant examples of this behaviour, but it is still a reflection of an aspect of company policy I find a bit irritating. The Forgotten Realms already has enough fans that it doesn't need constant promotion, nor does it need more origin stories when the established heroes are pretty interesting. I feel oversaturated and want to go on a purge. Dragonmirth brings back some familiar faces, and misses the point again. VS Orcs: Orcs are another well known monster that you don't need particularly complex tactics to beat. They aren't great at anything other than frontal assaults, so you can mow through them if you have a decent amount of artillery. They might be a challenge at 1st level, but even that can be fixed if you exploit flaming oil, taunting and traps. Really, they're another monster that doesn't need an article like this on them. Stop picking the easy targets! You're wasting your page count and our time by doing so. I know we're still new to the edition, but we learn fast. Some people are already quite a few levels up and don't need hand-holding. Give us a more interesting monster. Kthnxbye. Bazaar of the Bizarre: An old but still cool subject gets a third airing for the new edition. Named magical swords of the Forgotten Realms have been responsible for two pretty kickass articles in the past. Hopefully they'll be able to make it a hat trick, even if they're not giving a full 7 this time. Ashram is inhabited by a spirit, which gives it a whole bunch of useful powers. Initiative bonus, extra fire damage, stunning, energy resistance, it's nicely set up to be in the hands of some bad guy you might meet. Ellenderin is known as the weeping blade because it constantly drips holy water. This obviously makes it unpleasant to undead, but could also save your life by giving you something to drink in a pinch. And it makes for interesting visuals. I think this one counts as a success. Galathos has a royal history, and is able to reflect spells on their casters. If you find this one, you'll have plenty of competition for it. Malagar transforms your blood to flame on a crit. This obviously inflicts lots of extra damage. It too has an interesting history, being turned against the country of it's creation. Sarghathuld kicks the butts of orcs, hurting and blinding them. Meh. Not too impressive. So one really cool idea and 4 so-so ones. This isn't quite up to issue 74's standards. The adventures of Volo: Food! Given the number of jokes Elminster has made about Ed's weight over the years, and his love of worldbuilding, it's no surprise that he's thought about what kind of stuff people in the Realms eat. We've seen quite a few examples of that in books, some amusingly close attention to the specifics of snacks in The Wizards Three, and here's another 3 pages of nomables from all over the Realms. As with his work on plants, animals, musical instruments, languages, et al, there's a good mix of real world stuff, real stuff with funny names, and invented dishes using ingredients not found on earth. (which crosses over nicely with said imaginary ecosystem info. ) Elminster takes plenty of interest in this subject as well, with his usual clarifications and corrections. And we get to find out what dragon meat tastes like in the Realms, which I find very amusing. It's all a bit excessive, but since I know this kind of info is about to take a sharp nosedive in the magazine, I'm enjoying it for all it's worth. And the ornate spork just tops the whole thing off. PC Portraits: This column helps out with the steampunk stuff as usual. The artist uses an unusually light touch with their pencil work and shading, giving everything a semitransparent feel. Most of the characters are pretty well dressed and refined looking, and slightly over half of them have some obvious technological gadget that they're wearing or doing something with. I definitely like this one, as it has plenty of room for you to take the pictures, colour them in, and scribble over them to make them your own. Plus there's a half orc with muttonchops and dwarf cabbie. How can you not love that? Dress with style. It marks you as a cut above the norm, even if you don't have much money.</blockquote>

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